Diane Dyson

Diane Dyson is the interim director of strategic relations at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), joining the Institute for the duration of 2026.

In this role, she leads strategic work building strong and diverse stakeholder relationships and ensuring IWH’s research is responsive to the needs of workers, employers and policy-makers. Dyson works closely with the president, scientific director, Board of Directors, and the communications and knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) teams to identify partnership opportunities and amplify IWH’s impact.

Grounded in solution-focused research and knowledge mobilization, Dyson brings more than three decades of social policy leadership across the not-for-profit sector at the local, national and international levels.  Dyson has led projects on immigration and settlement, co-authored several reports on employment precarity, juried grant applications through the former Centre for Urban Health Initiatives, provided community perspective at university Research Ethics boards, amplified the voices of people with lived experience, trained and convened stakeholders around a range of social issues including—her favourite—bed bugs. Other policy wins include community data portals, anti-poverty strategies, and a variety of evidence-based, place-based interventions. Dyson is a currently member of the Board at the Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic. She is called on regularly for media appearances and is an avid user of social media technologies.

Dyson has an Master's of Education in Higher Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education/University of Toronto and a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Concordia University in Montreal.